I have a bronze male (who appears to have some blackshoulder in him and I think has a white flight feather) was bred with bronze females, a blue female, and an India blue pied female.

Now, in addition to bronze and pied split to bronze, I've ended up with two solid white chicks. It doesn't look like they're going to be blackshoulder hens (don't see any darkening in the feathers and they're about 6-8 weeks old). Anyway, the question is, if they remain white, how do I refer to the white chicks? White split to bronze . . . ?

Okay, I'm quite confident the white peachicks are going to remain white. Father is definitely a bronze male . . . mom, like I said, could be from an India blue hen, pied hen, or one of two bronze hens. So, it would seem right to call them white split to bronze . . . am I right?

I am now quite curious . . . although I probably won't be able to tell what the white chicks are for awhile (if they're hens or cocks), it would SEEM that if they're bred to a bronze bird that I could possibly get bronze chicks? Or would it be pied bronze or white-eyed pied (or regular) bronze or . . . ?

D C TUPA Forum Moderator

Joined: 16 Nov 2007
Posts: 906
Location: Georgia, USA

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:08 pm

If the peachicks really are white I would think that they are homozygous (meaning having both genes for color the same)
If I am right you can just consider them to be like any other white peachicks.
Or I could be wrong

Okay, I'm kind of confused with the whole genetics thing with peafowl -- typically I always am. So, when breeding bronze, are the birds EVER split to bronze? I have two pied chicks that came out of this hatch, but I've noticed these pied birds seem to have brown/bronze on their heads . . . or maybe that's normal? Or is that a sign of bronze in them? I also have a couple obviously bronze and one that's has an India Blue look in addition to what seems to be white. Do all those birds carry the bronze gene or do some do, some don't? In particular, back to the original question, do the white not carry the bronze gene, even though their father was a bronze male?

D C TUPA Forum Moderator

Joined: 16 Nov 2007
Posts: 906
Location: Georgia, USA

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:58 pm

I have NO experience at breeding bronze peafowl. Since purebred breeding stock is hard to find there can be surprises hidden in many peafowl. This is what makes hatching the eggs so interesting

_________________friendly poultry orthopedist

mustangkid

Joined: 04 Apr 2008
Posts: 4

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 1:23 pm

The origional poster said he had a Bronze male with multiple hens. The male showed signes of black shoulder and white feathers. Out of this breeding he got two white chicks and was wondering what the are. I would think that they are out of the pied hen. The white feathers on the cock is a sign of him being split white, The pied hen carries white as well, These chicks got a white gene from each parent so they look white, but are split bronze because the cock is bronze. If he is really split for blackshouler they might be split for that as well. You won't see signs of that in a white bird, only why to tell is to test breed with a blackshouldered bird.